Daniel Cody - “Left on the Lake”

I can’t figure out why this article in today’s MJS showed up on the front page and not the editorial page.

Apparently, the MJS has been listening to it’s sister AM talk radio media outlets quite a bit lately. It seems the reporter here is genuinely surprised that “regular” people aren’t panting breathlessly as much about the tax increase as the ultra conservative radio talk show hosts who spend the majority of their day railing against any kind of spending increase in this State, County and City.

One can argue that by questioning the lack of “outrage” about the large tax increase, the MJS is joining it’s other media outlets in trying to whip said outrage by focusing on it and expressing such shock that no one attends MPS board meetings.

I’ve been to enough MPS board meetings to know that the board is usually speaking to itself, or at best, a few concerned people for at least the first half of the meeting.

Yes, there’s a massive amount of apathy from the public on issues relating to the school board, and yes that’s a problem. Instead of joining the conservative chorus to lament the fact that “no one cares about tax increases!!”, the MJS should do its duty as a public educator and commit some resources to reporting about MPS on issues other than police officers or handcuffs. Or give some coverage to MPS issues and the people that make decisions on those issues on days other than those immediately preceding school board elections.

If they’re so concerned about the issue of public apathy towards MPS on issues other than the conservative “anti-tax” crusade, start reporting on the shocking lack of after school programs for kids, or how music and art have all but disappeared from public schools, or why school counselor positions are disappearing at an alarming rate.

Isn’t it amazing the difference an election can make?

The new Milwaukee School Board voted late Tuesday night to repeal the approval the prior board gave less than two weeks ago to allow handcuffs to be used by safety aides on out-of-control students. - MJS

While there are many things our Milwaukee Public Schools do need, being turned into a mini police state isn’t one of them. Personally, I’m happy to see the idea of handcuffs being used on children in our public schools tossed out the window.

Three different people questioning my “impartiality” within a day requires some clarification.

I never have nor do I now get any kind of compensation from any campaign for what I write on this weblog. I don’t work for, or on behalf of, any campaign. I don’t use my position within the DPW to “endorse” candidates in non-partisan races.

I’ve never understood why some people have thought that I of all people should hold off on supporting candidates for public office during a primary, or that by supporting a candidate that they choose not to, I’m somehow being biased or unfair or abusing my position within the DPW.

Hopefully that clears things up for a certain percentage of people who read my weblog.

In the city-wide school board seat, it’s going to be “In the pocket of the national pro-voucher lobby” Bruce Thompson vs. community activist Bama Brown-Grice.

The 8th district was a bit of a surprise, with progressive candidate Terry Falk besting incumbent Joe Dannecker by nearly 7%.

In the 3rd district, Stephanie Findley came in second behind Michael Bonds. It was pretty tense at first (I was at her result watching party) because the initial returns had her and LEON TODD pretty close, but thankfully she pulled away to finish a strong second.

Besides the Thomspon victory, it was a pretty solid night for progressives in the race for Milwaukee Public School Board. Because he is solidly financed by the pro-voucher industry- much of his money comes from out of state - Thompson is going to be difficult to beat.

Doesn’t it seem silly that it will cost more than $100,000 to win the city-wide seat for school board?

Go read his responses to a questionnaire sent out by the Journal Sentinel.

First off, it says a lot about a person when they RESPOND IN ALL CAPS. Second, while the district is predominantly African-American, why is it just “BLACK CHILDREN CAN’T AFFORD 4 MORE YEARS TO EDUCATE A NEWCOMER TO THE DISTRICT.”?

Besides being an incredibly ridiculous statement that only those who’ve previously been in public office should be the ones running for office, what about the rest of the white/hispanic/hmong/etc kids in the district?

From today’s Journal Sentinel feature called “issue of the day” where they toss a slow pitch softball to each of the candidates for Governor.

The pitch: Candidates were asked if the $62 million state subsidy for 4-year-old kindergarten programs offered by some local school districts should be continued.

Here’s Rep. Mark Green’s response:

“We’ve been funding four-year-old kindergarten for over 20 years, but during that time we have never tested to ensure the current structure of the program is adequately preparing our children for the next step in their education. … If four-year-old kindergarten isn’t making our children more competitive, then we should look at channeling that funding into other measures that will accomplish that very important and necessary goal.”

This tells you everything you need to know about Republicans and education.

No children are safe from their attempts to privatize schools through the testing trojan horse, even pre-schoolers.

Rep. Mark Green thinks it’s just not enough to get kids early access to schooling - which every study in the world has said has huge benefits - they should be TESTED on how many digits between 1 and 5 they know and what coloring crayons they’re using to scribble with.

What would a potential Gov. Green want after that? Head start funding cut if two year olds aren’t potty trained yet?

Seriously. Testing four year olds for how competative they are!?!

If it weren’t so ridiculous that this man wants to be your next Governor Wisconsin, we could all share a big laugh.

A follow up on this post from a month ago about MPS dishing out free breakfast to school kids this year…

Another 27 schools in MPS have started feeding their students breakfast with one twist: every student in those schools will have the option of getting breakfast regardless of economic status, and they’ll be fed in the classroom, not a cafeteria before school starts.

Good stuff, and a program that most people would think is a great idea.

Except for the Journal Sentinel’s Patrick McIlheran of course. But then it’s his job to play down things like this as best he can.

If you follow his twisted logic, kids who have parents with cars shouldn’t be taking the school bus in the morning either, because, you know, they already have transportation.

But that’s exactly what it takes to be a “right wing guy” columnist for Wisconsin’s largest daily paper, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Anyways, good news for the students at those 27 schools.

No surprise here. Just remember folks that when you hear the term “school choice” from Republicans, what they really mean is the public finance of (their) private schools.

U.S. Rep. Mark Green of Green Bay, the Republican candidate for governor, today proposed an education package that would eliminate the 22,500-enrollment cap on Milwaukee’s school choice program and expand the program to all of Milwaukee County.

The program allows children from low-income families to attend private schools using state tax funds. Green also proposed raising the current income limits for families participating in the program.

What Rep. Green really wants is public funding for private schooling, make no mistake about it.

Most people don’t know this, but these ‘choice’ schools are voucher schools that have no accountability at all in terms of what kind of curriculum they teach, how qualified their teachers are, or what - if any - benchmarks they have to prove their students are meeting the same achievement standards that public schools face.

The most disturbing twist on this is that he’s proposing raising the income limits for the programs which would in effect allow middle and upper class families to send their kids to private schools on the publics dime.

It’s been a Republican goal for decades to get the public taxpayer to finance private and parochial schools for their children, and the linguistic vehicles for that goal has been ’school choice’ and ‘No child left behind’. What Rep. Green is proposing here sends a loud and clear message that if he’s elected, he’s going to do everything in his power to not only gut Milwaukee Public Schools but to further blur the line between church and state in Wisconsin.

While affluent Republicans are sure to like his idea, it’s bad for Milwaukee, it’s bad for Milwaukee’s children, and it’s bad for Wisconsin.

The cover story in the latest edition of Newsweek asks the question, “The New First Grade: Too Much Too Soon?” and leads with this paragraph:

But by November, Ashlyn, then 5, wasn’t measuring up. No matter how many times she was tested, she couldn’t read the 130-word list her teacher gave her: words like “our,” “house” and “there.” She became so exhausted and distraught over homework—including a weekly essay on “my favorite animal” or “my family vacation”—that she would put her head down on the dining-room table and sob. “She would tell me, ‘I can’t write a story, Mama. I just can’t do it’,” recalls Tiffany, a stay-at-home mom

This is what happens when you turn schools into nothing more than factories where districts are measured only in terms of test scores and how many children they pass on to the next grade instead of things like overall student achievement and the number of well-rounded students that graduate.

But our society and federal government are addicted to testing and meaningless ’standards’ even for first graders.

Personally, I don’t remember being able to write my own complete name in the first grade, and yet as the Newsweek article points out, there are 5 year olds who are being labeled as ‘failures’ because they can’t write an essay. It’s the sad result of a meaningless mandate set out by the federal government and an overzealous desire by conservative school districts to try to fix everything by throwing a test at it.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for accountability and measuring student success. But not at the expense of labeling 5 year olds as ‘failures’ because they’re so busy testing on the 130 words in the example above, that they don’t spend any time actually learning what the words mean.

Good news for tens of thousands of children enrolled in Milwaukee Public Schools who used to start the school day hungry: MPS is rolling our free breakfast in more of it’s schools this year.

For the 2006-07 school year, a million dollars has been set aside by MPS to make breakfast available to students in more schools. Already, 97 principals out of a potential 200 have committed to meeting the few requirements of the program….

…The breakfasts will be available in either a bag or a small box, and will be accompanied by a carton of 2% milk. The meals will be delivered directly to the classroom, and children will eat them at their desks

Wisconsin has traditionally ranked dead last in participation in the National School Breakfast Program, and this should do something to turn that around on top of providing a healthy start to the day and a more productive learning environment to boot.

I came across this story yesterday which adds more fuel to the charter vs. public school debate:

Fourth-graders in traditional public schools are doing better in both reading and math than students in charter schools, the government says in a report fueling fresh debate over school choice.

Tuesday’s report said fourth-graders in regular public schools scored an average of 5.2 points better in reading than students in charter schools on the 2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress test. Students in traditional schools scored an average of 5.8 points better in math. - AP

I’d be interested to see if this national study would produce the same results here in Milwaukee. While there are good and bad public schools out there in both the public and charter schools, it’s interesting to see that the credo of charter schools - “Autonomy for Accountability” - may not be holding water anymore.

These kinds of findings are why it’s so important to have accountability from our schools.